Report on P1224: X.400 API

[Peter Collinson]

Submitted-by: pc at hillside.co.uk (Peter Collinson)

USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee
Stephen R. Walli <stephe at usenix.org>, Report Editor
Report on P1224: X.400 API


Steve Trus <trus at osi.ncsl.nist.gov> reports on the April
15-19, 1991 meeting in Chicago, IL:

Introduction

P1224 is the IEEE working group standardizing an application program
interface (API) for X.400 and also for a companion, OSI Object
Management (OM).  The work will result in two documents.  Interfaces
developed by the X.400 API Association and X/Open have provided the
basis for the standards.  The X.400 API consists of two parts: an
application interface and a gateway interface.  Both of these are
based on the 1988 CCITT X.400 Series of Recommendations.

The P1224 working group has the following officers:

   - Steve Trus, Chairman (NIST)

   - Tim Carter, Vice Chairman (IBM)

   - Iain Devine, Technical Editor, Secretary (X/Open)

The Chicago meeting was very productive for the P1224 working group.
We have been gaining momentum over the past three meetings, and are
well under way to producing an IEEE standard.

The goal of the group is to have a draft of the X.400 API and the
Object Management APIs by the July meeting, and to ballot the
documents after the October meeting.

Report

At the Chicago meeting the group continued modifying the base
documents to produce the draft API documents for ballot. This work
includes:

  1.  editing the documents to meet the style and format
      requirements of the IEEE,

  2.  adding a language independent specification of the
      interfaces to the documents, and

  3.  developing the required conformance test assertions.

The language independent specification of the Object Management API is
complete, and the technical editor has made most of the required style
changes. These changes will be complete and the language independent
specification will be incorporated into the document by the July
meeting.  Work on the style modifications to the X.400 document will
also be complete by the July meeting.  The X.400 language independent
specification should be complete and incorporated at this time.

The group spent most of the week developing the required test methods
for the Object Management Specification.  A representative of the Test
Methods working group (POSIX.3) assisted us with this development.
Members of the group agreed to develop test methods for functions
assigned to them by the next meeting.  This task will need to be
completed before the complete ballot of the document.

Balloting Plans

We discussed balloting plans and we would like to begin balloting the
Object Management Specification and the X.400 API in October.  These
ballots would not include the test methods, and balloting cannot
complete without them.

We are developing the list of people who will be invited to ballot
these documents, along with the IEEE formed balloting group.  This
list will include the X.400 API Association, X/Open Limited, the NIST
X.400 Workshop, and the Electronic Mail Association.

PAR Restructuring

The original Project Authorization Request (PAR) for the P1224 group
was written when the baseline document contained an X.400 gateway API
and the related OSI Object Management specification.  Currently, the
X.400 API document contains the user agent interfaces, the gateway
interfaces. The OSI Object Management specification is contained in a
separate document.  To accommodate these changes a revised PAR was
written at the January meeting for the X.400 API, and a new PAR was
written for the OSI Object Management specification.  These PARs were
approved by the IEEE TCOS SEC at this meeting.

In Closing ...

P1224 is making good progress. Homework assignments were delegated at
the Chicago meeting to be completed by the Santa Clara meeting.  The
primary focus of the Santa Clara meeting will be to review the Draft
X.400 and Object Management APIs, and to continue working on test
methods for the interfaces.



























































Volume-Number: Volume 24, Number 21